


Cause I'm Happier Here

by orphan_account



Category: Oxenfree
Genre: Gen, Persona AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 05:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6316204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Most interesting. It seems your have been on the same path for a long time, and just now have a chance to change. Can you avert the tragic course of fate? We shall see,” Igor says, looking at the tarot cards spread before him and smiling to himself, chuckling, “Well. I will be happy to offer you my services for your journey.”</p><p>Alex folds her arms. The tragic course of fate her life took had already happened. Unless Alex could travel back in time and stop Michael dying, fate had already had its way.</p><p>--</p><p>A Persona AU of Oxenfree, because damnit these kids at least deserve to get superpowers from this ordeal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 0. Fool

Alex has never been on a submarine before. She doesn’t particularly know how she ended up on one – the boat to Edward’s Island was just a regular, above-sea-level boat, right? Well, maybe she missed a dive when she went to the bathroom or something.

Walking down the hall she finds a door – big and blue, with one of those cartoon wheel handles. Maybe submarines do have those in real life, she has no idea, but she’s only ever seen them in Looney Tunes episodes. She grips the wheel tight and turns it slowly. Outside, the water stretches out dark and endless, and she can hear the tide thump like a beating heart. It feels lik it’s in her ears.

She shakes her head and opens the submarine door.

A long-nosed man looks up at her, seating on a long sofa before a rounded table, as though expected in her. The man fixes her with a round-eyed stare that makes Alex stumble back, but the door behind her is already closed. A thin woman in a blue uniform stands in the corner, her nose in a book.

“Welcome to the Velvet Room,” the man says, in a melodic voice that doesn’t suit his whole…goblin-under-the-bridge vibe, “I am Igor. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Igor? Uh. That figures,” Alex replies. She’s never met a guy that looks _more_ like an Igor.

Igor doesn’t seem phased, and gestures for her to sit down on a stool before the desk. Alex sits, looking at the water and the dim figures of jellyfish bouncing past the round submarine windows.

So, she’s dreaming.

Cool.

“You have been called here as you have an unusual fate ahead of you,” Igor says, and spreads out a range of tarot cards before him. Alex watches him, nonplussed. “Would you care for a reading?”

“Sure, I guess?” Alex says, scratching the back of her neck. Igor is already turning over his first card.

“Ah, The Tower, upright. An upheaval of your current life is coming your way.”

“I am getting a new brother,” Alex says, looking at the card’s image of two people throwing themselves out of a burning tower. Alex didn’t really know anything about fortune telling, but somehow she didn’t think that was the best card you could draw.

Igor continues, to the next card, chuckling. His laugh makes the hairs on the back of Alex’s neck stand on end.

“Death, reversed. Your story will be stuttered by those unable to move on, and perhaps by your own refusal to grow. Interesting,” Igor says, “Only through change can you meet your goal.”

A burning tower and death. Great. Igor turns the second-to-last card, still smiling away to himself under that big obscene-looking nose.

“The Wheel of Fortune, reversed,” Igor says, “Veeeery interesting…and finally. The Lovers, upright.”

“So, uh, I’m gonna change, and then die, and then go on a gameshow, and then get a girlfriend?” Alex interprets uncertainly. Igor ignores her completely.

“Most interesting. It seems your have been on the same path for a long time, and just now have a chance to change. Can you avert the tragic course of fate? We shall see,” Igor says, looking at the tarot cards spread before him and smiling to himself, chuckling, “Well. I will be happy to offer you my services for your journey.”

Alex folds her arms. The tragic course of fate her life took had already happened. Unless Alex could travel back in time and stop Michael dying, fate had already had its way.

“Now, I must ask you to sign a small contract. It is nothing to worry about – it simply states that you will take responsibility for your actions.”

Alex looks at the contract before her – the print is tiny, and in cursive, but she’s dreaming so, whatever, right? She signs her name on the dotted line, and the contract disappears before her. Igor smiles broadly at her, rubbing his gloved hands together.

“How very exciting - you are nearing the start of your journey. We will meet again, in time.”

The submarine falls apart around her, and for a second there is static and screaming, and then there is light and then there is –

“Alex, hello, earth to Alex!”

Ren prods her in the forehead.

“Wow, you fell asleep? This boat ride is only half an hour long!” Ren chastises her. Alex sits up, straightening her clothes and hair. She looks at Ren, grinning at her, and then at Jonas, looking embarrassed to be seen with her.

She wipes the drool from her chin.

“Sorry, sorry. I, uh, didn’t get much sleep last night.”

Personally, she blames Jonas – she was up all night worrying about him moving in, and worrying about taking him to the Edward’s Island mixer and him meeting all her friends. It was only natural she’d end up falling asleep before they even got to the island, and start having weird dreams about…something. Something weird, she’s sure. Being underwater?

“Sheesh, you slept the whole way over! I had to make small-talk with this guy the whole way. I mean, he seems cool enough, but talk about _awkward_ ,” Ren chatters, gesturing to Jonas, who looks away, fiddling with his necklace, “Anyway, you’ve got the radio, right?”

“Oh,” Alex says, and fishes the old-school radio from the pocket of her jacket, complimentary for all Edwards Island tourists, “Yeah, I’ve got it.”

“Great. Ha, that little thing is so cute,” he says, “Hey, tune it in to the high school radio. Carly promised to give us a shout-out about our thing tonight.”

“Yeah,” Alex says, but she’s scraping her mind for the memories of her dream. Whatever it had been, it had felt important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is from this opening song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh1vpoUX_vY
> 
> Check out the translated lyrics! http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Dream_of_Butterfly#English_Translation   
> It, uh, it fits weirdly well? Like, weirdly well?


	2. 07. Chariot

“Like a…pool or something? Like a fresh water one, maybe?” Jonas says, looking into a mouth of a big dark cave that he might never be able to get out of again, with the genius plan to go into it.

Sure, that sounds like a great idea. Climb on in, new big brother! Then Alex can go home and explain that, okay, Mom, you got me a new brother, but I already lost it, sorry about that. You know what I’m like with these things!

Yeah.

No way in hell.

“Let’s just head back to the beach, Jonas,” Alex says, but Jonas is already climbing in. Alex splutters, feeling again like the stupid little sister nobody wanted to listen to.

“Fortune favours the bold,” he says.

“Wait a minute! Jonas!” Alex barks, climbing in after him with her heart hammering. What was this idiot thinking, exactly? Behind her, she hears Ren muttering to himself and sinking down on the sand. She can only imagine the dopey, blissed-out grin on his face. She’s seen it plenty of times before.

How the hell Jonas gets so far ahead of her, Alex doesn’t understand. All she knows is that her head is _throbbing_. She thinks tuning into all those signals outside has given her a migraine or something. Radio waves could do that, right?

In her pocket, the radio continues to crackle and spit, like it contained a thousand angry little demons. No amount of twisting the dials makes it stop. Alex takes the batteries out.

No dice. If anything, the radio only gets louder. As though offended.

It sounds kind of like a voice. If she strains her ears very, very hard, she can sort of hear it.

_Thou art I. I art thou_.

Whatever.

Stupid.

“Jonas!” she calls out into the darkness of the cave, climbing up a wall jagged enough to turn her fingers red and sore in seconds, “Jonas! I am going to kill you!”

The crackling from the radio gets louder. She can practically _feel_ it against her side, hot and almost vibrating.

Jonas is slumped down next to an old armoire, his head in his hands. Alex is too relieved to even question how the hell an old-fashioned armoire made its way down her and rushes to him, catching his hands in hers.

Jonas screams and lashes out, knocking her back.

Something jingles on his wrists – a pair of handcuffs. He stares at her, or more through her, and Alex is completely confused.

“Jonas? What are you doing? Now is _no_ time to be getting kinky,” she says. Jonas shakes his head, his face pale and eyes wide, and Alex can’t help but think of a cornered animal in a cage, frightened beyond anger or struggling, just helplessly trying to avoid the next blow.

Alex looks up – they’re in a courthouse?

Since when?

The seats are all empty, and the podium is grey with dust, but it’s an old courthouse alright. The American flags behind the judge’s desk are tattered, and undulating in a wind Alex can’t feel, and can’t even guess where it’s coming from.

The radio in her pocket sounds like an old dial-up tone now. She hits it through her jacket, hissing for it to shut up, as she crouches to Jonas.

“Jonas, we need to move,” she snaps.

_He won’t get up_.

A voice that sounds like Jonas’s, only put through a shredder and stitched back together something demented. Alex stands up and sees Jonas sitting on the podium, his legs crossed underneath him and his head tilted. A sneer, twisted and very un-Jonas-like, stretches across his face as he looks at her.

“Jonas? And…also Jonas?” she splutters, looking back and forth between new-Jonas and old-Jonas.

_Had_ she had some of Ren’s special brownies? She was sure she hadn’t…but…

“Wo-ow! This ninny’s supposed to be our new little sister? Ha, such a drag,” Other-Jonas says, and swings himself off the podium. He takes a little blade from his pocket and spins it around his fingers, grinning as Alex jumps back.

“What are you?” Jonas says from the floor, backing up further against the armoire, “G-go away!”

“But you’re not the brightest crayon in the box yourself, huh? I mean, if you _were_ you’d have never gotten into that shit back in North Valley, right?” Other-Jonas says, an amber glint in his eyes She glances back at Jonas – nope. His eyes are definitely brown. Other-Jonas takes a step towards him, and Alex moves between them, spreading her arms. Other-Jonas frowns at her, and Alex notices the spiral of shadows at his feet, stretching monstrously across the wall of the cave.

“Out the way, sweetie. I need to tell this little _punk_ exactly what his problem is.”

“Quit it! Leave him alone!” she yells. She suddenly feels as though a million eyes focus on her, needling her with red-eyed stares through a veil, trying to press through with clawed hands that itch for a throat.

“Oh, need a little girl to look after you now, do you? Have you _told_ her, yet, about the kind of guy you were back home? The little miscreant, causing so many problems for dear old Mom, even in the throes of cancer! Ha, that’s right,” Other-Jonas sneers, at Alex’s startled expression, “Mom was losing her hair, going through chemo, in hospital all the time and just plain damn rotting away from the inside. What did _this_ little asshole do? Start getting caught shoplifting and tagging and all sorts of _stupid teenager shit_ , that probably put Mom in her grave faster!”

“Shut up!” Jonas bursts out, stumbling to his feet, “Alex, don’t listen to him. That’s not– I didn’t – I –“

Other-Jonas laughs, his voice like the crack of a whip.

“Of course you did, asshole! Oh no, Mommy’s ill, better act out and keep both her and Dad _miserable_ ,” he yellws, spreading his arms out, “And hey, how do I know this? Because I’m _you_.”

“No! That’s not true, you – you’re some kind of hallucination, or an alien, or some freaky monster on this freaky island, you’re _not me_!”

Somehow, Alex knows that’s exactly the wrong thing to say.

Other-Jonas begins laugh, and Alex can definitely feel those hands coming through the veil now. It’s like one of those Magic Eye pictures – she focuses her eyes a certain way and she can see it.

Above Other-Jonas’s head, a triangle of a distant night hangs in the air, murky faces and hands reaching through it, all flickering and slithering and oozing towards Other-Jonas like moths to light.

Alex stays in front of Jonas, her hands shaking.

“That’s right!” Other-Jonas bellows, “Yes. I’m _finally_ myself –“

Other-Jonas begins to stretch and distorted, shrieking through long jaws and stretching out his arms, and then his other arms, and then all four of his legs. His limbs are connected through cross-crossing chains, shackles clamped on each of his ankles and wrists, tight enough Alex can see red welts in his flesh.

Other-Jonas falls forward, his feet and palms on the floor, shaking his head. The chains scrape and jangle whenever he moves. It doesn’t even _look_ like Jonas any more. Jonas, as far as she knew, didn’t have four arms, four legs, and three faces. Or a set of teeth like an alligator’s. And he wasn’t into bondage, as far as she knew, and if all the chains and straps and shackles and collars were any indication, this thing sure as hell was.

“I am a Shadow! The true self!” the monster bellows.

“Alex!” Jonas cries out behind her, and scrambles up to pull her away.

The radio crackles more insistently in her pocket. Somehow, Alex knows what to do.

She pushes Jonas back and stands between him and the monster. She’s not going to helplessly watch a boy die this time.

_I am thou, and thou art I._

She begins to tune in the radio.

“Alex, what are you _doing_?” Jonas says, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the monster’s snapping teeth.

“Improvising!” Alex shouts, “Stay behind me!”

“What the _hell!_ ”

_Thou art I…_

She finds the right station and feels a warm wind is rush through her whole body, whipping her ponytail up like a little teal flame. Jonas is blown back by the force of it, and falls on his ass, cursing.

_I am thou._

“Persona!”

Arianrhod bursts out of her, a silver wheel with a million barbed points in her hands, seated in her chariot. Her pale body ripples with the power of a thousand storms, and for a second Alex sees out of her eyes, sees the monster in front of her and knows she has the power to end it.

Alex holds the radio aloft, breathing in deeply, and lets Arianrhod steer her. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, exactly, but she can feel it. She can feel Arianrhod’s power, how it’s part of her now somehow, and how to draw it into a weapon to rip this _thing_ to shreds.

“Garu!” Alex bellows, as Arianrhod does, and Shadow Jonas is torn apart with a shriek.

The triangle above his head flickers and judders. Arianrhod flickers away, though Alex feels her come to rest inside of her chest, ready to return at a moment’ notice.

The monster isn’t dead yet. Just back to normal – a copy of Jonas cut out of the dark of the cave. Shadow Jonas stands still, his eyes glowing but his arms limp by his side.

“What?” Jonas says, “It’s not dead?”

Alex pulls him to his feet, holding his forearm tight in her hand as Jonas looks at his other self, still pale and shaking in her grip.

Shadow Jonas stares at both of them, his gaze mutinous but his mouth sealed shut.

“Nothing else to say?” Jonas snarls.

Alex punches him on the arm.

“Look…I don’t know if I can do…that again. Don’t fight it,” she says, breathing deeply and just now noticing the sweat across her forehead, “Don’t ask how I know but…if you. If you try to say it’s not you…I think it’ll happen again.”

Jonas fiddles with the ring on the chain around his neck, slipping it on and off his index finger.

“Would you like it, something like that coming out of you, airing all your dirty laundry?” he says, voice hoarse and quiet, “To someone you’ve just _met_. Someone you’re supposed to live with until you graduate.”

Alex fidgets. She’s never been very good at this touchy-feely stuff. Michael has always been good at it…she could never figure it out. She always just put her foot in it. Despite that, she took a breath and steeled herself to at least _try_.

“I don’t care about any of that stuff,” she says, and winces at the look on Jonas’s face. Great start, Alex. “No, I mean, I care you had to…deal with stuff like that, but I don’t think it makes you a bad person. That’s just, part of your history, so it. It’s part of you, right?”

Jonas looks at her, and Alex almost expects him to snort and tell her to shut up, tell her she was being stupid and naïve. He doesn’t, he just nods and steps past her towards his other self.

He doesn’t say anything. Just nods. Shadow Jonas nods back, and then disappears. For a second, Alex sees something floating above him – like a man in armour, or maybe a tiger standing on its hind legs or….something.

It’s been a long day.

Then it’s gone, and Jonas sinks to the floor. Alex catches him, just barely, and manages to hold him upright, looping his arm around her shoulder.

“I got you, Jonas. C’mon, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Maahes,” Jonas mutters.

“Huh?”

“I…I think I just met a guy called Maahes,” he says, his words slurring together, “Big guy. Lion head.”

Alex doesn’t know what to say to that, but she can feel Arianrhod thrumming in her chest, urging her to understand. She thinks she does, somehow.

“Um. Yeah. I just met a girl called Arianrhod,” she says slowly, and shifts his weight so he leans at least a little more comfortable into her, “I…we can do introductions later. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

#

They come out from the cave, to a sky overcast with green, and shadows that are filled with eyes and jagged teeth and snarling mouths. Alex’s ears crackle with static, and she sees figures, flickering and dark, appear and disappear before her eyes.

Arianrhod holds her wheel tight, and lays an invisible hand on Alex’s shoulder.

_Careful…_ she seems to say, and Alex knows they could potentially be attacked again.

A coffin stands erect in the sand before them, huge and black. Another pair of coffins stand behind them. Jonas grabs tightly onto Alex.

“What’s going on?” he mutters.

“I don’t know –“

Something snaps.

“Where did you guys _go_?” Ren barks at them. The sky above is pink with dawn, and Ren looks suspiciously like he may have been crying. Behind him, Clarissa and Nona watch. Clarissa has her arms folded, and is just barely managing to suppress a smirk. Nona fidgets with the hem of her sweater.

They look from Alex, her forehead slick with sweat, to Jonas, leaning heavily across her shoulders, his face pale and his eyes puffy.

“What are you talking about? We were only down there an hour at most –“

“An hour! You were there all night! I try to go in after you, and the cave’s only a few metres deep!” Ren says, “I’m just up there freaking out, thinking you’d gotten trapped in a cave in, and – and –“

“Ren, you’re on a come down,” Alex snaps, “We’re fine, okay, you probably just –“

“You don’t have a come down, from _weed_!” he screams, and then turns and runs away.

Jonas and Alex look at one another. What could they say? ‘Sorry Jonas we had a weird encounter with Jonas’s evil twin, and time looks like it works differently on this island, oh and also you were just in a coffin a few seconds ago, what is up with that?

Sure, they’d sound like they were totally sober and sane and hadn’t hit their heads down in the cave or anything. Alex was struggling to believe those things were true anyway, and she’d seen all of that crazy shit down there unfold first-hand.

Clarissa only shakes her head at them both and walks away silently. Nona hesitates, looking at them both, before following on Clarissa’s heel. Alex can’t help but uncharitably think of an owner and her pet.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ren that mad,” Alex says.

“He was worried,” Jonas says, “He’ll get over it. Let’s just…let’s just get out of here. I feel like I’m gonna hurl.”

“Do _not_ hurl on me,” Alex warns him, and drags him towards the pier.

All the boat ride home, Nona and Clarissa keep their distance, gossiping in their little two person clique and giving Alex a frosty look whenever she tries to join in. Ren staunchly refuses to speak to either of them.

#

“Welcome back,” says Igor that night.

Alex sits in the Velvet Room, her hands bunched into fists in her lap. Arianrhod stands behind her, protective as a bodyguard, but that doesn’t stop Igor’s gaze from being any less creepy.

“Your power has awoken already – and that of your companions. I am sure you have many questions.”

“Yeah. Like. What the hell,” Alex says.

“The power you have been given is the power of _Persona_ ,” Igor says, as though that explains it all. Alex folds her arms. She really doesn’t like Igor. She can’t say she knows why, exactly, aside from the fact he’s insanely creepy. Arianrhod doesn’t like him either though, and that makes Alex feel better about it.

“Think of it as being able to call forth a mask, a piece of your soul, to carry you through hardship. And your power is that of the Wild Card – unlike most, you will be able to call forth many masks, many Personas, to help you on your journey,” he says.

“What journey?” Alex snaps, “Whatever happened the other night – I’m done with it. I’m going back to school in the morning and forgetting this _ever_ happened.”

Igor chuckles.

“You will find it more difficult than that to avoid the path fate has paved for you,” he says, “It is a path you have walked many times, and you will continue to walk it until you reach its true end.”

What.

“So this power, it’s meant to help me find this true end? So, am I going to have to fight more monster like that one in the cave?” Alex asks, and despite herself feels a rush of adrenaline at the thought. Bringing up Arianrhod and shredding that monster to pieces…as much as she hates to admit it, that felt _good_. It had been a long time since Alex had felt powerful.

“Yes. And the services we offer here will help you move past this trial, to an ending, and your future,” Igor agrees, “For that purpose, I would like to introduce you to my assistant. Anna.”

The woman with the book looks up and steps forward. She has pale hair in a tight bun, curly strands falling before her ears. She is very pretty, but there is something about her that makes Alex uneasy. While her expression is carefully blank and professional, Alex can sense something sad behind her eyes, slow and huge as the ocean.

“Hello. My name is Anna. Pleased to meet you,” she says, closing the book in her hands and holding it to her chest, “My role here is to record your Personas in the compendium, so you may use them at any time. I will also assist you in fusing them.”

“Fusing them?” Alex repeats, confused.

“All in good time, Alex,” Anna says, with an enigmatic smile. She has the compendium open again and her nose in it, turning the pages with interest, “I notice you first person is Arianrhod, of the Fool. She has the powers of the wind, and has somewhat effective healing capabilities However, she has a weakness to electricity.”

Alex stares.

“Your brother, he has let Maahes, of the Chariot arcana, into his heart. Wields fire and physical attacks, and can support his allies. Unlike you, the Chariot cannot wield multiple Personas at once. So please bear in mind that ice attacks will be especially troublesome for Maahes,” she continues.

“Ice attacks? Like. In Pokemon? Are these Pokemon?” Alex says.

Anna frowns at her. She looks as though she's just barely managing to hold back her contempt.

“I am not familiar with the concept. I also note you’ve established a link with the Chariot arcana. This will help you,” she says, and then closes her eyes, pressing her book to her chest, “The bonds you make, Alex, these are the most important parts of your journey. These bonds will allow you to bring out the best of yourself, and the best of your friends. Treasure them, and hold them close.”

“Ooookay?” Alex says. Anna doesn’t elaborate further, but blushes as though she’s said too much and begins looking at her compendium again.

“I believe it is almost time to leave, Alex,” Igor says, and reaches forward. Alex recoils, but Igor only holds out a small blue key, “So you may come to us when you wish, and fulfil the terms of your contract.”

For reasons beyond her, Alex takes the key.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent far too much time coming up with suitable Personas and abilities.


End file.
